War and Large Scale Battle (3.5e Variant Rule)

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In the world of D&D, conflict often takes place in the smaller, more relatively confined battles within hundreds of feet. But, lost in this kind of world, what happens to the commander's view? The War-room discussion and tactics planning portion that comes with large-scale battle, itself. This by no means ever has to come to a common player character's destiny, but what if it did?

That is what this rule intends to create: The opportunity for characters to lead units of armies into battle against other armies, as commanders on large scale situations and terrains.

The way this works is by using dice to symbolize units and their commanders, the latter of which are usually based off of the player character or NPC leading them. Often, the Commander has a different die from the rest, determined from the table below. Battles are largely decided as one army attacks, prompting both players to take the number of dice accounting for their commander and units, and oppose rolls. This has a couple of rules that are in place to ensure longevity of battles and a sense of true victory upon completion:

Only commanders can attack commanders; The only exception to this is overflow, which is explained in the Units section below.

Commanders never attack units, unless stated otherwise.

When opposing rolls, units from each side immediately match up highest roll to highest roll in sequence. This is explained in detail below.

If a commander loses all his HP, he is knocked unconscious, killed, or taken captive, as per your DM's discretion. The units following this commander are considered to either scatter in fear, or dice without leadership.

When morale is threatened, you must roll a check to determine whether your units stay loyal, which is against your charisma score. This is detailed below.

Commanders are essentially the enterprise of player characters. In a unit, the player character is represented as one die, depending on his class. Commanders must lead units of similar classes, or they suffer penalties to their unit's ability to attack and defend. Certain commanders may also have particular traits that affect how they handle themselves in terrain, against certain foes, and etc.; These are flavorful additions, and every commander is encouraged to have at least one benefit, and one flaw.

Commanders are only ever allowed to attack other commander units in battle. Once a commander is vanquished, his unit is scattered, and retreats in panic, or dices trying to hold their ground.

All commanders have classes within the five below. SRD classes typically filter in according to obvious contribution: Barbarians, Fighters, and Monks are Warriors. Sorcerers, Wizards, and Druids are Mages. Clerics, Rogues, and Rangers all fall within their obvious categories. Other classes, such as Paladins, are able to choose between their combination. I.E. A Paladin can choose to either be a Warrior or a Cleric, and a Bard might well choose between a Rogue and a Mage, at the player or DM's discretion. This is subject to DM discretion.

Every commander has at least one of these. Discuss with your DM how many traits one commander is allowed to have, and clear your selections with them before applying them, as some may fit in with your character more than others. It's recommended you have one flaw for every one trait you have.

Every commander has at least one of these. Discuss with your DM how many flaws one commander is allowed to have, and clear your selections with them before applying them, as some may fit in with your character more than others. It's recommended you have one trait for every one flaw you have.

Units are the background of every army. While a commander is a integral part of any force, without units to command, he is essentially useless. Often case, they also happen to be the nameless, disposable parts of any large force, as well, and thus are uniform amongst their peers.

Each unit, no matter which class, is represented by one die, and each die symbolizes 10 (or another appropriate number) men or women of that class. This denotes the size of your army to a key, and how well you can fend off your enemies depends on both their numbers and class. For example, having 5 units estimates that you have 50 people behind you, ready to help fend off your common foes, and they can be any of the five classes: Warriors, Rangers, Mages, Clerics, or Rogues.

Table: Unit Class Statistics

Class

die

Warrior

1d8

Ranger

1d6

Mage1

1d8

Cleric2

1d4

Rogue

1d4

Mages are less defensible than other classes, and take an alternate 1dd die when defending.

Clerics are generally more defensible than they appear, and take an alternate 1d6 die when defending.

Units specialize in being the bulk of the army, which means that, rather than take after the opposing commander, they tend to become enthralled in battling the opposing units, instead. However, that does not mean that extra units cannot assist their commander in taking down enemy leaders.

This is called overflow, and an instance where an army is larger than the opposing force. After determining the pairings, as per the rules, all units that have no opposing dice are allowed to transfer their full damage to the opposing commander, illustrating that their being unoccupied frees them up to attack in greater force against the commander.

An example of how units battle:

Player 1 rolls the following out of a fifty man army of warriors, excluding his commander's roll:

4

5

2

8

2

The opposing commander rolls with his fifty man army, also of warriors:

3

5

3

6

7

As such, we pair the two greatest rolls from each side, and remove the losing dice from his respective army; It should be noted that each die can only be involved in damage once per attack or defense. In this case, we take the 8 from the Player, and the 7 from the NPC. The player wins, and so the NPC loses that die, and therefore his army size decreases. We then move on to the next pairing, being the player's 5, and the NPC's 6. In this case, the NPC wins, and the player loses his die, now decreasing his army. This takes place until all dice have participated in battle.

As an example of overflow, if the player had one extra die, and had a rolled a 1, it would have been the last one to be paired! The problem is that there are no units in the NPC's army to fight with, and so (Unless your commander has the Gang-up! trait), they are immediately made to now attack the commander directly, who has no chance to counterattack or defend. The commander takes 1 damage, regardless of whether Player's commander was able to beat his score or not. This is why larger armies are always preferred.

Generally, every squad (Commander and Units) is able to move a set number of squares each round, accompanied with an attack or special ability, if any. This factor is entirely dependent on what Formation the squad is in, and what Terrain the squad is moving through.

The three types of Formation are Clustered, Standard, and Spread; All squads are considered to be in standard formation until they are noted to move otherwise. Single-man squads, such as single scouts, are always in standard formation. The formation of your squad has numerous effects:

Clustered formation affects the squad by making them move slower, but easier to conceal in the land's various shrubbery, foilage, or rocky outcroppings. It also gives your units a +2 to defense rolls, except if attacked by rangers, whose concentrated arrows give the squad a -2 to their defensive rolls.

Standard formation is the most average of all the formations. It comes with no penalties or benefits, but is the most balanced.

Spread formation affects the squad by making them move faster, and enables your field of vision to increase by 2, making it essential for scouting parties. Using this formation sacrifices performance for haste, and therefore attacks made after movement in spread formation apply a -2 to all rolls. If attacked by warriors while in this formation, your defense rolls suffer a -2 as they are great in picking off stragglers.